What is it about the murder of Noida's 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar, and the family's domestic help, Hemraj Banjade, on May 16, 2008, that haunts urban India still - especially in a country where human lives rarely matter, until deaths swell up to a quotable statistic? Surely there are many reasons.

Journalist Avirook Sen ends the introduction of his book, Aarushi, referring to how astronaut Rakesh Sharma, when asked by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi what India looked like from space, had famously said, "Saare jahaan se accha (better than all the world)." His book (or the case) reveals "how it looks from the ground."